Restorations in Progress!

Welcome to Our Works in Progress Page!

Here you'll find all of our current

works in progress....

The vehicles presented here are currently being restored or customized at our loation.  Some of the vehicles are for sale and some are just for show.  Vehicles that are for sale are for sale by the owner and Denney's Auto Body and Custom Shop will provide you with the contact details for you to get in touch with the owner regarding any sale information.  Denney's Auto Body and Custom Shop is not involved in the sale of any vehicle and all sales are the sole responsibility of the parties involved.  Denney's Auto Body and Custom Shop and it's employees assume no liability regarding the sale of any vehicle presented by it's owner and no warranties are either expressed or implied by Denney's Auto Body and Custom Shop.

"1957 Chevrolet Two Door Hard-Top"

This 1957 Chevy 2-Door Hard Top project is currently in progress.  The chassis is finished.  The frame has been blasted and painted. (California frame)  Rebuilt motor.  700r4 transmission, rebuilt rear end, 2" dropped spindles, rear springs pocketed for wider tires.  Front disc brakes.  Unisteer rack & pinion steering.  All brake and fuel lines are installed. 

Body is pretty solid.  Needs to have metal work completed  Have complete front end clip and all trim.  There is no glass or upholstery.  Lot's of money already invested in this pretty car.  Owner says sell her as is.  He has too many projects in progress and something has to go!  His loss is your gain! 

Please contact us for price and owner contact details.  (813) 644-4497

Updates to our projects page will be posted regularly...... so please check back often!

HERE'S THE NEWEST ADDITION TO OUR PROJECTS

1970 CUTLASS 442 CONVERTIBLE - COMPLETE RESTORATION!

The Cutlass 442 is a favorite of every muscle car enthusiast!  It's distinguishing stripes allow for great color combinations in a variety of paint colors.  This 1970 Cutlass 442 Convertible is a fine specimen of the ragtop version. 

This car came to us with most of the body work finished and our job was to correct the body work flaws and complete the job with a custom paint job.  She'll be finished using a  tiny silver "mica" flake infused in an "Infinity" based black paint with a custom pearl white "original design" 442 racing stripe!

This car will no doubt be a "head turner" when finished.  The following pictures show the car as it arrived to us.  We'll be posting regular updates by the week so check back often.  The proposed finish date will be around the third week of November!

UPDATE!  This beautiful specimen is now ready for the paint booth.  After a couple weeks of straightening and fixing some of the original body work on this car, she's ready for paint.  We're all excited here as this will be the first "finished" project out of the new shop!  Kudo's to owner, DA, who has chosen a simply fabulous color scheme which we know will be a knockout design.  She'll be dressed in black mica flake, a deep black with the tiniest hint of mica flake to bring out the gorgeous lines of this classic muscle car.  Add to that some pearlized "off white" (to match the pristine drop top) 442 classic racing stripes and she'll definitely be a show winner.  Here's some pics of this wonderful custom classic in primer and ready for the booth.  As you can see in these comparison photos, all body work has been straightened and the body lines fine tuned.  Take special notice of the door alignment, which was definitely a problem on this vehicle.  For our do-it-yourselfer's out there, bear in mind when working with one of these particular classics, meaning the Olds Cutlass, Chevy Monte Carlo, or Pontiac Grand Prix, always replace the door hinge assemblies as these door are enormous and the shear weight of the door caused problems on these vehicles even when these beauties were new.  The newer style door hinges are better engineered and made to more evenly distribute the weight of these monster doors and will also save wear and stress on the fender areas where the hinges are mounted.  In most cases this is extremely important in these older vehicles because a lot of them have major rust problems in the lower fender area and old hinges will definitely allow enough play to cause stress cracks in your body fillers and even worse, the paint, once the vehicle is painted.  The same goes for the hood on these muscle cars. 

The hood on all of these vehicles is huge.  It's made to house some of the larges cubic inch motors ever built!  So definitely look into replacing the hood hinges also.  It will be well worth the extra couple of dollars when it comes time to line everything up.

Check back with us soon!  This car should be finished by the end of the weekend.  We'll definitely be putting up some finished photos! 

A number of you have inquired regarding whether this car is for sale or not.  According to her owner, she is not for sale at this point.  We'll let you know of that status changes. 

See you soon!

Larry and Dee Blackman

LDJ Auto Body and Custom Shop

ldjautobody@yahoo.com

UPDATE!  OUR LATEST PROJECT HITS THE PAINT BOOTH!

FOLLOW THIS PROJECT AS IT PROGRESSES

Well, the 1970 Cutlass 442 project car that we have been working on here went into the paint booth yesterday!  It's always a great feeling of accomplishment when a project car reaches the paint booth.  Regardless of whether it was a complete, ground up restoration or just a new custom paint job, these older beauties are what it's all about.

Here's some pics of the 1970 Cutlass 442 as it went from primer to paint!  The final pics will be posted tomorrow.

Shown here with sealer in place, she's ready for paint.  As with most all of our custom jobs, this vehicle was finished using all DuPont products. 

We endorse and recommend DuPont products here at LDJ and have been using them for almost 30 years now.

After allowing the sealer to dry, she's ready for the first base coat.  The following pictures show the progress from base coat thru the application of the pearl white 442 racing stripes.

With the black base coat in place, it's time to start the racing stripe.  The stripe is taped off and sprayed using a tri-color pearl by starting with a white base coat and then the pearl.  The stripes on this car are the original configuration and included the two large hood panel accents.

With the stripes in place, the car is ready for the final clear coats.  The car was finished in DuPont Black Mica Metallic with a tri-color pearl white original 442 racing stripe.  The finished product will sport 6 coats of DuPont clear to protect the finish.

Check back tomorrow for the final shots of this beautiful car after wet sanding and buffing.  We'd like to thank the owner for allowing us to follow the work of this vehicle so we could take you through the steps of a custom paint job.  The finished car will have chrome 1970 Cutlass 442 bumpers which were fitted prior to the paint job. 

THE FINISHED PROJECT!!

Nothin' makes an owner feel better than knowin'it's done!

As I told you last time, the chrome bumpers and eyebrows arrived over the weekend and she was sooooo beautiful in her new bling, I just had to run the pics! So here for your enjoyment is the finished 1970 Cutlass 442 Convertible in all her "chrome bling"!

We also want to thank her owner for letting us show her off here!

Many of you have asked about whether or not this great car is for sale! As far as we know right now, she is going to be his driver for awhile. We'll be sure to let you know if we hear anything about the car going up for sale!

We'd love to hear your comments and see some of our reader's projects! Please let us know what you think AND send those pics in! We'll publish them right here so we can all discuss these great cars!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Larry and Dee Blackman
LDJ Auto Body and Custom Shop

Shown below are some of the completed paint pictures before the chrome arrived. What a beautiful car this turned out to be:

Our next project will be on the way soon!  Check back often to see what the future of the restoration barn brings!  You never know!  The next car shown here could be yours!

Talk to ya soon!

OUR NEWEST PROJECT IS HERE!

1966 CHEVY IMPALA SUPER SPORT!

Our newest restoration project is a 1966 Impala Super Sport.  She will be getting a complete makeover here at LDJ!  The restoration will be done using all original parts as she is in pretty good condition for her age!  This car should bring back some memories for a lot of our readers!  She is wearing the traditional Chevrolet "aqua blue" here!  A favorite of the '60's era.  When finished, she'll be done in a "mico metal-flake black". 

This great car along with most of her counter-parts for that era is constructed of heavy gauge steel, and we do mean "heavy"!  She has some rust in the usual places for a car of this age and the main concern will be removing all traces of that rust in the lower doors, rocker panels and the lower quarters.  As you can see in the pictures, she has been preserved remarkably well and the rust is at a minimum!  All rust holes will be patched with heavy gauge metal welded to cover the holes.

The car was brought in with all of the mouldings, door handles, bumpers most of the emblems in place.  A real blessing for a vehicle this age as finding some of those items can be a real chore.  The window glass is also in great shape, again saving a lot of footwork trying to find original glass for a car of this vintage.  However, window glass can be made by most glass companies to fit vehicles like these, so if your project is missing any glass work, you can call any large auto glass company and get something to fit the bill if you're not having any luck on the Internet.  Original mouldings and emblems are usually available on the Internet.  However, there are some aftermarket suppliers that can provide you with substitues.  A list of these suppliers will be posted in our next article.

The tail lamps, head lamps and even the marker lights are still on the vehicle, again saving a lot of time in having to procure them elsewhere.  But, once again, although finding these parts as originals can be somewhat of an exhausting search, replacements are available through some suppliers, so don't give up if you're having some trouble locating what you need.  We'll be supplying some links here that should prove useful if you're looking for some hard to find parts for your own project.

The hood of our project is one piece that will need some extra attention.  It is an extremely heavy hood and it contains rust holes that will cause a problem in the finished project.  This is due to the fact that the hood is extremely flat and filling or patching the holes and maintaining the perfectly flat surface may take more time and labor than replacing the hood itself.  You can also see that the hood itself has sprung slightly and bending a hood of this gauge is difficult and sometimes not possible.  We'll be running a compelte article on this and other problems you might encounter with your project soon, so be sure to check back often or register now if you haven't already done so. 

This will be the first of our tutorials on restoration projects in 2012.  Register now for automatic updates and don't miss out on some great information to help you with your own project!  You'll get great information on products, techniques and much more with pictures that will let you see exactly what happens along with an explanation from our technicians.

Thanks for stopping by!  Don't forget to check out our Google page at https://www.sites.google.com/site/ldjautobodyandcustomshop/.  You'll find contact information and a list of our other web sites to help you out with everything from cars, trucks AND motorcycles!

Larry and Dee Blackman

LDJ Auto Body and Custom Shop

ldjautobody@yahoo.com